In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Chapter 3 Agriculturdl Progressivism dnd the South Thalf century between the Civil War and World War I was a period ofsocial, political, and agricultural flux and change, readjustment, and adaptation. The Civil War and Reconstruction forced modifications of labor relations, political structures, financial and credit systems, and agricultural practices. Scientific and technological advances engulfed more and more of the South's and Alabama's nether regions in the Cotton Belt and threatened the traditional open range. The heralds of agricultural progressivism-public institutions, private organizations , and energetic individuals-encouraged and cajoled farmers and stock raisers to adopt modern, efficient methods. Pests injured crops and animals, leading many farmers to turn for help to agricultural reformers such as veterinarians, extension agents, and breed association representatives . As a result many farmers, especially in the Black Belt, would take the • 43 • • 44 • AGRICULTURAL PROGRESSIVISM AND THE SOUTH first steps toward a modern version ofcattle raising. At the same time others would find that the progeny of progressive agriculture encroached upon traditional customs, threatened livelihoods, and demanded change. The half century in question was one of stagnation, if not decline, for Alabama's cattle raisers. Nevertheless, despite the apparent inactivity among Alabama farmers and cattlemen and the tremendous spread of cotton cultivation , the foundation for the modern cattle industry was laid during this era. Though cotton production spread into every county of Alabama and the state's production of the fiber more than doubled, cattle persisted as integral subsistence and cash providers on farms and plantations. Furthermore , in large part because of growing urban demands for dairy products , the number of cattle in the state increased by more than one-third between Reconstruction and the onset ofWorld War I (Table I, appendix). A number ofevents and developments in this period directly or tangentially related to cattle raisers would prove to have even far more profound and lasting effects than market expansion on the future of cattle raising and agriculture in Alabama. Though the modern cattle industry blossomed throughout the state only after World War II, the key blocks of its foundation were laid before 1920. The products ofagricultural progressivism and the New South movement provided private and public bases from which individuals ofinfluence could promote diversification and modern livestock breeding practices. From the establishment ofAlabama's land grant college at Auburn in 1872 to the government-sponsored campaign for the eradication ofthe fever tick in the first quarter of the twentieth century, public officials and private individuals attempted to adapt technological and scientific advances and progressive ideals to the increasingly monocultural southern countryside. Though widespread realization of the progressive agriculturist's goals awaited New Deal intervention and World War II-era technological and economic upheaval, by World War I the first steps had been taken toward achievement of a cattle industry based on the midwestern model. This new system of livestock farming stressed the raising of purebred British breeds and the utilization of enclosed and improved pastures, winter forage feeding , veterinary care, and, on occasion, animal shelters. Simultaneously, the death knell began to ring for the few remnants of Alabama's traditional • 45 • AGRICULTURAL PROGRESSIVISM AND THE SOUTH herding culture: open-range drovers, landless stock raisers, and semisubsistence farmers of the backwoods. Despite the destruction and disruption of the Civil War, open-range cattle raising persisted well into the postbellum era. The extent and dispersion of this traditional agricultural practice differed according to geographic regions but qualitatively paralleled the antebellum regional model presented earlier. Open-range livestock raising flourished and endured primarily in backwoods areas ofAlabama, the southern piney woods and rugged uplands in the north. Swine production continued to dominate in the hills and mountains; in southern Alabama many drovers maintained herds ofcattle numbering in the hundreds along with large numbers ofsheep and swme. The manuscript agricultural census of 1880 reveals the persistence of several piney woods cattle raisers. The substantial number of postbellum livestock raisers forces us to reevaluate the emphasis of historians such as Grady McWhiney and Forrest McDonald on the central importance of the Civil War in the disappearance of southern open-range herding. Though the war obviously injured cattle raisers in the piney woods, the cattle industry was already in decline and retreat well before 1860. The postwar piney woods contained fewer cattle raisers and smaller herds; nevertheless, many of these families carried the herding tradition into the twentieth century.l The expansion of cotton cultivation before and after the Civil War pushed herders into the more inaccessible and...

Share